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Damian Hopley Q&A: Artificial pitches and the impact of a 13-team Premiership

Rugby Players' Association chief executive Damian Hopley talks about player welfare on the Will Greenwood Podcast

Last Updated: 15/05/19 1:51pm

Damian Hopley says player welfare should be at the heart of future conversations

Rugby Players' Association chief executive Damian Hopley believes Premiership Rugby and the RFU must work closer together to ensure player welfare remains at the heart of the English game.

Hopley gave his views on a number of subjects on the latest episode of the Will Greenwood Podcast, and the former London Wasps and England wing and centre discussed how the club season can become more playable for those involved.

Player safety has become a major talking point in the sport, and looking after the product has once more come under the spotlight, with the Gallagher Premiership edging closer to becoming a 13-team league.

Ensuring the players are in the best possible peak condition to perform is paramount, and this is already questionable during a 22-game league season, before cup competitions, the play-offs, and international commitments are considered.

Hopley revealed that the RPA are starting to apply far more data and science to the subject to decipher the right number of games a season that players ought to be involved in, having previously battled to ensure a five-week rest period in between campaigns.

He said: "We've got a huge off-season this year because of the World Cup. It's about being more scientific, and the RFU now has an elite hub where you can plug in players' details.

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"We need to look at whether the upper limit of 32 games is appropriate or whether this needs to come down. We need to look at how we can give the best players the best chance to be the best.

"There's been stuff in the press recently about a 13-team Premiership, and whether this would have an impact on the amount of rest in-season for players.

"We're working with Premiership Rugby and the RFU around that. We don't know whether that's going to come in or not and it needs RFU approval, but we need to look at how we can make the season more playable for those involved.

"It's important they get sufficient rest and recuperation throughout the year.

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"There's a viability issue here as we've seen the success of Exeter and Bristol having gained promotion. They look like they belong in the Premiership, whereas we had the horror story of London Welsh recently when they didn't win a game.

"We want the sport to thrive, and we want players to be in jobs in five years' time, not for two clubs to go bust and we're back down to 10 or 11 clubs, so that's important.

"It's very sad that Newcastle have gone down, as rugby in the north is a hugely important thing. For me, Sale and Newcastle have to be there or thereabouts, year in, year out, otherwise we're just shooting ourselves in the foot.

Let's not beat around the bush, the 'A' League is a disaster. Part of the conversation going forward is whether we can get more meaningful games for players outside of the top 35 in the clubs.

Rugby Players' Association CEO Damian Hopley

"I can understand the reasoning behind play-offs but I think it's important that we have whole swathes of players in the Premiership who don't play anywhere near enough rugby, are in the gym all the time, and get a handful of 'A' League matches.

"Let's not beat around the bush, the 'A' League is a disaster. Part of the conversation going forward is whether we can get more meaningful games for these players outside of the top 35 in the clubs, almost as a pathway to get them into it.

"Rugby in this country and indeed globally hasn't been great in joined-up thinking and what we're trying to do now is have the Premiership, the Championship, the Players' Association and the RFU look at what the best model is to produce fantastic England players, and make sure that England are competitive when it comes to international tournaments."

"Of all the pitches, Newcastle is the one which is liked the most. When you think that before there was a bog at Kingston Park in December - a pitch that was really difficult to play on - Newcastle comes out of it well.

"But generally, the survey will show that most of our players are not happy with artificial pitches. We've talked about whether there should be just one surface used across the Premiership.

There was criticism of Glasgow's artificial pitch against Scarlets last year

"The only home advantage should be your fans and the stadium, the atmosphere. Twickenham's Desso surface is magnificent and should be the template. But these are huge financial considerations for clubs.

"We work in a world where players, coaches and the like work on a seven-day turnaround, but the sport has to be governed by decisions that are made two or three years out.

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"That's the difficult thing for players who want things done overnight - it just doesn't work like that.

"So we're hoping that the survey we bring out will help the direction of travel, in terms of decisions made, but we certainly would like a moratorium on any new pitches or artificial pitches put down until we gather more data from the three that are being used currently in the Premiership."